Witness in Cordelia drugs case says Aryan Khan was 'implicated', crores involved in 'big game'

Yet another witness in the Narcotics Control Bureau has come forward to allege that Aryan Khan was 'implicated' in the Cordelia cruise ship drugs bust, this time claiming that prominent BJP worker and fellow witness Manish Bhanushali was heard talking about a '18 crore' deal to settle the Aryan Khan case.

Vijay Pagare, who is part of the witness list of the NCB, told ANI that he realised Aryan Khan was framed in the drugs case after overhearing a conversation between Bhanushali and National Congress Party leader Sunil Pail. Pagare said that he had been following Patil for a while in order to get back money he was owed. It was during this time that he overheard a conversation between Bhanushali and and Patil in a hotel room where he overheard them discussing that a 'big game' was afoot. On October 3 Bhanushali had asked Pagare to accompany him.

"While I was with him in the car, I heard them saying that a deal of ₹25 crore was scheduled but settled on ₹18 crore and ₹50 lakhs taken," Pagare claimed in his interview. It was after this That he visited the NCB office and then afterwards that he saw the news of Aryan Khan's arrest on TV which was when he realised that the son of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan had been 'implicated' in the case, Pagare said.

Another NCB witness, Prabhakar Sail had also come forward alleging that NCB witness Kiran Gosavi had taken a payment of 50 lakhs from Shah Rukh Khan's manager and had offered to help Aryan Khan. Gosavi was arrested in a cheating case earlier this month. NCB Mumbai zonal head Sameer Wankhede stepped down and is now being investigated for allegedly taking a payment of ₹8 crore in the case as alleged by Sail although he denies all charges.

The team led by Wankhede raided a Goa-bound luxury cruise ship off the Mumbai coast on October 2 and seized a cache of drugs. Following the raid, Aryan Khan was arrested on October 3, along with his friend Arbaaz Seth Merchant and model Munmum Dhamecha, and was sent to judicial custody on October 7. He and his co-accused finally received bail on October 28.